UNITED
NATIONS, June
30 -- There is
a lot of talk
at the UN
against
conflict
minerals, the
exploitation
of natural
resources for
conflict. But
does the UN
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations
under Herve
Ladsous
live up to
this?

Pursuing
the
Minova abuses
since last
November, in
the face of repeated
Ladsous
refusals to
answer,
Inner City
Press asked
the UN for a
list
of the units
of the
Congolese army
(FARDC) which
it supports.
The UN,
or Ladsous'
DPKO, refused.

Now
the new UN
Democratic
Republic of
the Congo
sanctions
report, which
Inner City
Press put exclusively
online early
yesterday,
lists FARDC
units involved
in conflict
gold, even in
locked up
miners who
refuse
to pay their
“tax” in
underground
prisons. A
sample
paragraph:

165.
The 10th
Military
Region of
FARDC controls
the Mukungwe
gold mine, in
Walungu
territory,
South Kivu
(see
S/2011/738,
paras.
528-532). At
this site,
FARDC soldiers
collect
illegal taxes
weekly from
artisanal
miners. Miners
who fail to
pay are
arrested and
held in an
underground
prison until
payment of the
tax is made.
The Group
obtained an
October 2012
letter from
the president
of one of
Mukungwe’s
local
cooperatives
that reminded
the local army
intelligence
officer that
the weekly tax
of 1000FC (USD
1.11) per
miner needs to
be split
between the
ANR, the
police and the
army (see
annex 73). A
former FDLR
officer in
charge of
logistics told
the
Group that the
FDLR also
collected
taxes from
miners working
in
Mukungwe, as
well as in
Rukatu mine,
in Mwenga
territory;
FDLR
accrues USD
2000 per month
from both
mines.

According
to
a former FDLR
officer and
gold traders
in Butembo,
the FDLR are
involved in
gold mining in
North Kivu’s
Lubero
Territory.
According
to several
former FDLR
combatants,
FDLR
commanders are
also drawing
profits from
gold mines in
Walikale. In
some
instances,
FDLR
combatants
search for
gold
themselves,
and in other
cases, they
tax
gold miners,
demanding
their
production one
day per week.

So
has MONUSCO
supported
FARDC’s 10th
Military
Region?

Inner
City Press
already has
specific
questions
pending at
DPKO without
yet
an substantive
response.
Inner City
Press has
asked DPKO
chief Herve
Ladsous' four
top
spokespeople
to comment on
these issues
-- and,
incidentally,
if they have a
new position
on their MONUSCO's
January
30, 2013 press
release denouncing
the
publication
(now confirmed
by
the Report) of
links between
the FARDC and
FDLR, by Inner
City Press.
Now, DPKO
confirmed
receipt more
than 22 hours
before this
publication,
but so far no
substantive
response.